Friday, August 10, 2012

LEADERSHIP makes a difference

The needed quality in our nation's success is and always will be LEADERSHIP. No amount of money or political correctness can match the results of having the best Leader in place.

The United States has had many distinguished Leaders but presently, we are facing a Leadership deficit. If America is to forge a future worthy of our past, we need to find and elect real leaders.

Presently, our President is the diametric opposite of what Leadership should be. He promised " hope and change" and only delivered failure and a " Do as I say, not as I do" attitude. His complete failure to lead has been documented and is the reason why our country is more divisively split now than ever before.

Mitt Romney is in need of a charisma upgrade but offers a more measured approach along with well documented management skill set. He isn't Jefferson or Washington, but he is a much better manager than the lack-wit who has mucked up our country over the last 3 1/2 years.

NBC and Tom Brokaw will feature a documentary that gives us a lesson in what true leadership was back when the world faced the threat of World War II. From 1938 - 1941, England stood alone against Nazi Germany.

Sir Winston Churchill was the key leader England needed. He had failed previously but learned key lessons from each experience and was able to rally his countrymen to stand against the onslaught of the Battle of Britain.

" Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.."

Churchill's eloquent and tough-as-nails leadership held his country together. No American Leader since President John F. Kennedy's Cuban Missile Crisis has faced such a serious challenge. The majority of the nation's citizens in 1962 were concerned but didn't really understand how close the world came to annihilation until years later.

9/11 was a serious crisis and the country rallied behind President Bush, but Kennedy had to stare down the Russians who were threatening Nuclear War.

Americans got to see 9/11 as it happened and rallied behind our President but were able to count on a standing military who responded to the attacks. In World War 2, our nation and England had been on a peacetime status with diminished military forces when World War 2 happened.

Watch the special and take a lesson from History - Leadership makes the difference.Leadership Under Fire By SOHRAB AHMARI - Wall Street JournalTheir Finest HourSaturday, Aug. 11 at 8 p.m. on NBC

The word "hero" is thrown around lightly and frequently during Olympic season. But as Tom Brokaw reminds us in "Their Finest Hour," physical endurance and courage alone do not make heroes.

This remarkable documentary, set to air during NBC's regular Olympic programming, chronicles the heroism of Britain in the first two years of World War II, when, as Mr. Brokaw says, "England stood alone, when England was all that was left between liberty and tyranny." "Their Finest Hour" does not disclose any new historical facts. But by making extensive use of newly unearthed, color archival footage, plus the testimonies of British veterans, nurses and survivors, Mr. Brokaw pays tribute to Britain's "poetry of defiance" in the face of Nazi terror.

We meet a pilot who, at age 19, helped fend off the mighty German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain—the 1940 campaign by the Third Reich to break the Royal Air Force. "I never considered defeat," the pilot, now 93, tells Mr. Brokaw. "I don't think any of us ever did." A nurse recalls "the quiet courage of the men" and how that courage gave heart to the women.

Then came the Luftwaffe's merciless bombing of London and other cities. This was "a deliberate attempt by Hitler to terrorize London into defeat," the historian Andrew Roberts explains. All told the Nazi bombing of London left 40,000 dead, thousands more wounded and some two million homeless. But, Mr. Roberts says, Hitler "misunderstood the nature of the British people." St. Paul's Cathedral remained miraculously intact, and the newspaper headlines—"Is That the Best You Can Do, Adolf?"—testified to Britain's indomitable spirit.

The greatest symbol of that spirit was, of course, Prime Minister Winston Churchill—that "hard-drinking firebrand of vast experience and suspect judgment," as Mr. Brokaw puts it. (Though Mr. Brokaw doesn't pause to elaborate on that terse "suspect judgment" charge.) Churchill's mission was to ensure Britain would survive the Nazi onslaught long enough for the U.S. to enter the fray. "We are fighting by ourselves alone," he famously told his compatriots. "But we are not fighting for ourselves alone."

The wait was long and painful and the sleeping giant slow to awake. Militating against a U.S. entry into the war were isolationists led by the likes of Charles Lindbergh and his America First movement. "Let Europe fight its own battle," we hear one of Lindbergh's followers sneer. "They mean nothing to us." The rhetoric sounds eerily familiar to that deployed by contemporary proponents of isolationism of both the left-wing and right-wing varieties.

Today the athletes gathered in London and most of their spectators around the world take the special relationship between the U.S. and Britain for granted. The discomfiting question raised by Mr. Brokaw's documentary is: Will future generations of Britons and Americans appreciate the high price paid to forge it? There are no easy answers. Either way, this film might just be NBC's finest hour of Olympic programming

About US Navy Jeep

US NAVY JEEP is a blog dedicated to presenting and promoting information that represents the USA & our fine Military, especially the US Navy & USMC. This also includes being candid and expressing opinions about issues and concerns that effect all of us in the areas of politics, defense and the domestic affairs of our country. This blog has no affiliation with the US Navy or United States Government.

Along the way, I will also enclose info about Classic Cars, Warbirds and other topics of interest...I like to keep it interesting.

I decided to feature the venerable US Navy Jeep because while the ground-pounders in the Army like to think it is exclusively theirs, the Jeep did a helluva lot of duty in the Navy and ferried Seabees/Marines across many miles and beaches fought for an inch at a time. I have also restored my own 1963 Willys Jeep and rededicated her as a Navy Jeep with correct paint scheme and lettering. She is a great old Jeep and I get lots of compliments on her.

As a retired combat Veteran, I find that my ideals have not changed much since retiring and I find the words below to be some of the best ones to express how I feel about a life-long dedication to the US Navy's values of Honor, Courage & Committment.

The Sailor's Creed:

I am a United States Sailor.

I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and I will obey the orders of those appointed over me.

I represent the fighting spirit of the Navy and all who have gone before me to defend freedom and democracy around the world.

I proudly serve my country’s Navy combat team with Honor, Courage and Commitment.

I am committed to excellence and the fair treatment of all.

Wise Words & Sage Advice

"We ask no favours of the enemy. We seek from them no compunction. On the contrary, if tonight our people were asked to cast their vote whether a convention should be entered into to stop the bombing of cities, the overwhelming majority would cry, "No, we will mete out to them the measure, and more than the measure, that they have meted out to us."

The people with one voice would say: "You have committed every crime under the sun. Where you have been the least resisted there you have been the most brutal. It was you who began the indiscriminate bombing. We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You do your worst - and we will do our best."

" You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. "

" I have selected as a title of my remarks tonight "The President and the Press." Some may suggest that this would be more naturally worded "The President Versus the Press." But those are not my sentiments tonight....

But I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country's peril. In time of war, the government and the press have customarily joined in an effort, based largely on self-discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to the enemy. In times of "clear and present danger," the courts have held that even the privileged rights of the First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security.

Today no war has been declared, and however fierce the struggle may be, it may never be declared in the traditional fashion. Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe. The survival of our friends is in danger. And yet no war has been declared, no borders have been crossed by marching troops, no missiles have been fired.

If the press is awaiting a declaration of war before it imposes the self-discipline of combat conditions, then I can only say that no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of "clear and present danger," then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent.

I have no intention of establishing a new Office of War Information to govern the flow of news. I am not suggesting any new forms of censorship or new types of security classifications. I have no easy answer to the dilemma that I have posed, and would not seek to impose it if I had one. But I am asking the members of the newspaper profession and the industry in this country to reexamine their own responsibilities, to consider the degree and the nature of the present danger, and to heed the duty of self-restraint which that danger imposes upon us all.

Every newspaper now asks itself, with respect to every story: "Is it news?" All I suggest is that you add the question: "Is it in the interest of national security?"

President John F. Kennedy
Address to the American Newspaper Publishers
27 April 1961

Col. Jessep: Son, we live in a world that has walls and those walls need to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and curse the Marines; you have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives and that my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use them as the backbone of a life trying to defend something. You use them as a punchline.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you," and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest that you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to..." (From A Few Good Men)

About Middleboro Jones

I'm a Human Resources professional with 25+ years of management experience with companies from the defense support services, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, & human service sectors. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Eastern Nazarene College.
I'm a retired US Navy Combat Veteran and held the rank of Petty Officer 1st Class in the United States Naval Reserve. My awards include Meritorious Unit Commendations, Navy Unit Commendation Medal, 3 Naval Reserve Meritorious Service Medals, a National Defense Service Medal, 2 Navy & Marine Corps Overseas Service Medals, Iraq Campaign Medal and designation as an Expert Marksman with the 9 mm pistol & M-16 Rifle.
I was a member of the crew on the USS CONSTITUTION in 1997 when she went under sail for the 1st time in 116 years. I have served on active duty with the US Navy in Iraq, Kuwait, Egypt, The UAE, Bahrain, Pearl Harbor Hawaii, Navy Base New Orleans LA, Newport RI, Port Hueneme CA, Cheatem Annex VA and Tampa FL.